A photograph of a man dressed in women’s clothing being escorted by army personnel was shared by right-wing writer Madhu Kishwar. She claimed that he was captured during the July 26 encounter in the Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. An unidentified militant was killed in the encounter with security forces.

The image was also shared by a few users crediting the Modi government for identifying such militants. A message in Hindi makes a reference to the 2001 Parliamentary attack convict Afzal Guru. “हर घर से खाग्रेस काल मे #अफजल निकलेगा सुना तो था परंतु भाजपा शासन में ऐसे निकलेगा ये नही पता था. नमो,” reads the Hindi message. The tweet below was posted by @DrGudiyaa who is followed by BJP leader Kapil Mishra.

It has also been shared on Facebook by the page Namo India.

Fact-check

A simple reverse-image search reveals that the photograph was shot in 2012 in Afghanistan. We found the image on Outlook which credited it to Associated Press (AP). “In this March 28, 2012, Afghan security forces escort Taliban militants clad in Afghan women dresses to be presented to the media at the Afghan intelligence department in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghan Intelligence forces arrested seven Taliban militants in Qarghayi district of Laghman province,” reads its description on AP. The photograph is credited to Rahmat Gul.

There are also other images of the Taliban militant on AP.

A nine-year-old image of a Taliban militant caught in Afghanistan was therefore shared with the false claim that a terrorist dressed in women’s attire was caught by Kashmiri security forces.

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About the Author

Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.